Alright been working on the entrance ..or a "The Exit " in this case, this is way up there in the tree mountain. If you look close on the first sketch it's there :)
Here is where I'll have Mr. K exit the entrance and make his way to town...

Here is a miniature of the Gate/ entrance in progress. 1:24 scale at about 48' tall...still a second layers of boards and painting to do :)

I agree you need evil trees, look at disney snow white, the trees looked like clawing hands the curves and arcs of the "hands" "trees" would help with the rythmn of the forms. Also they would frame the shot for you. Diagonals in a picture help with the flow of the eye to the subject , straight forms either block progress of your eye, or lead the eye out of the frame. So straight trees no, curved evil trees yes.

The second one has a more successful perspective than the first, and I quite like the colour pallette. When doing your sketches though, try not to get caught up in unneccessary details like the fine grass brush that you used. A bit of texture to imply materials can help a sketch, but try and keep it loose - its all about the colour and light. Take a look at this sketch by artist Min Yum, and see how he handles grassy areas. Notice how he implies a few blades of grass / reeds, but then letst the rest jsut become loose texture.

Of course, as soon as these are going to be matte paintings, this becomes largely redundant anyway as you will be working with photographs, but just to help you improve the presentation of your sketches a bit :)

interesting...and really good point. I appreciate the suggestion Nick..
Still figuring all this stuff out... great example too...
For me I think i have a habit of painting what I see close on screen for what it is...forgetting about what the eyes really see from the perspective of the viewer location...I see that in these examples...

Funny how as your working it seems as if your happy...but looking at it closer and after the fact....
You really start to see your learning gems like that...its a love of moving forward that moves us forward right.....